Reflective Essay: I Am A Major League Pitcher Warm Up

Have you ever seen how a pitcher winds up? Do you want to be the star of your team? Has the wind up ever confused you? Well if you have here is how to do it. If you dont have these thing and have n

Ever since I could remember, I have always had a great interest and love for the game of baseball. As a kid, I would spend countless hours in the backyard with my grandfather, or even by myself, tossing, hitting and fielding a baseball. When I wasn't in the yard pretending to be Nomar Garciaparra I would watch the Boston Red Sox games on TV with my Grandfather.  Even in my early adolescence, as impatient as most are, I had the patience to sit there and watch the Sox.With my eyes glued to the screen with a look of anticipation fixed on my face ready to mimic my grandfather with the excitement of a home run hit or the frustration of Mo-Vaughn striking out. Call me crazy, but I was addicted, even as a young boy, to Boston Red Sox baseball.

Today is the last day before I report for Spring Training. Of the 5,000,000 children playing baseball in the U.S., only 1,500 will be drafted into the MLB. I have worked hard enough to be one of the lucky few that make it. Before I report for Spring Training, I want to have a day to remember. I would go to my most favorite places, go see my most favorite people, and go do some of my favorite things.

As soon as I made my very first varsity baseball appearance, I knew that I had to be the very best I could be or there was never going to be a chance of ever putting on that white and maroon crisp cleaned dri-fit Russel number 18 jersey. My heart was beating beyond faster than it should be at my first at bat because I had always heard “Just wait you haven't seen nothing yet, wait till you face them varsity pitchers.” Players older than me had constantly been saying that throughout my freshman season and it kept repeating over and over in my head like a broken record. Although I had studied the pitcher and had seen with my very own eyes, he wasn’t as good as everyone talked him up to be. I was still overawed and very nervous about messing up.

     Being great at a particular sport, such as baseball, is actually quite simple. It takes a mix of talent and even more hard work. I have seen a very large number of athletes come through this high school with all the talent in the world, but had no work ethic. Talent is only a fraction of what is needed to be great.

Baseball is a game of skill that is played with a hard ball and a bat between two teams of nine players each at a time on the playing field at once. Although many different people play Baseball all over the world it is most popular in the United States. It is so popular in fact, it is referred to as the national pastime of the United States because of the tradition and popularity associated with the game. Baseball consists of many complicated rules. It also has a very elaborate history. One can not fully understand the game America has grown to love until learning about not only the rules but also the history.

The game of baseball was invented by Abner Doubleday, in 1839- 177 years ago from today. Baseball has been, and is still today, known as America’s favorite pastime; additionally, due to its extensive history and partaking it monumental events, it can as well serve as a great topic to use in a story or poem. Poet Dale Ritterbusch, uses the game of baseball along with metaphors in his poem as a vehicle to write about a more substantial subject in poetry, the Vietnam War. His poem, “Behind the Plate”, can be simply over-looked to one as just a poem about an overweight catcher; nonetheless, when closely examined, it has a deeper meaning. Authors Michael Cocchiarale and Scott Emmert, both agree with the statement that baseball is a great outlet for further analysis of a more important subject: “Writers have seen sports, particularly baseball, as a useful vehicle for cultural and epistemological analysis” (Cocchiarale).

I step up to the plate. The hot lights of the Mets stadium hit my face. Clayton Kershaw was pitching. He is the best pitcher in the MLB. The pitch comes. It was a slow hanging curveball right over the middle. I swing will all my might. I hear the crack of the bat and I see the ball fly over the fence. I trot around the bases and I am approaching home plate. I step on home then I wake up.

Throughout my teenage years I loved to play baseball. I was in different clubs, organizations, and teams. My whole life was dedicated to playing ball. Then things started to change going into my freshmen year, I started to get into computers. I decided to enroll into a computer class at Franklin high school. I started to learn a lot stuff about computers and also I was pretty good at it. Also at the time I was still managing to be in baseball. Then going into my senior year I had to choses in between being in baseball or going into computers. I knew going into computers will help me get a head start in my carrier. So I chose to go into computers and quit baseball. I thought I will never have to quit baseball my whole life. It was a very big significant event in my life but good things have come with it. I got three CompTIA certifications, paid for half of my

1. Briefly, what are the major developments in the history of the labor-management relationship within Major League Baseball?

I’ve played softball my entire life. I’ve also been hurt countless times while playing softball. From getting hit with pitches to having a serious asthma attack. But there is one injury I had in particular that stuck with me, it wasn’t too long ago, the summer before I went into my freshman year. I remember everything, it was the first game of the league softball tournament.

My palms were sweaty, knees weak, arms were heavy, as my dad tried to make awkward conversation with me as he drove. We were on our way to the Kettler Capitals Iceplex, the very new looking arena where the Washington Capitals practiced. The rink is far to begin with, down in Arlington Virginia, and the fact it was a dark and rainy Tuesday night did us no favors. The grueling stop and go traffic extended our ride to over an hour, good thing we left much earlier than we had to. The ice slot was set for 7:30, so I wanted to be there a little before 7 in order to have plenty of time to get dressed and get through my pre-game/practice rituals with ease. At 7:30 I would be on the ice trying out for my first AAA hockey team, The Washington Little Caps, the best team in the DMV.

I always consider myself to play Major League baseball; as I grew up; I realized that I would need a backup plan. By the seventh grade I noticed that I liked to do hands on activities and problem solve difficult tasks. I displayed all the interests of an electrical engineer. I believe that the interest really may have started at an even younger age. My father has been a maintenance technician for almost 25 years. In say that, I enjoyed watching my dad fix things which sparked my interest in fixing things, or at least look into the engineering field.

Professional sports are a competition between the greatest athletes in the world. And when I go to a game, that’s exactly what I expect to see. Sports are entertainment. There is no room for purity and respecting the limits that athletes had in the past. Modern athletes should utilize all the resources that they have available to them. This includes steroids, which enhance an athlete’s performance. After all, performance is what really matters.

A Sporting skill was the basis of my personal example for the behavior that i wanted to change. I have been running track ever since my freshman year in high school and it is one of the main focuses of my life. I run track here at VCU and my coach is always telling me that I need to correct my running form. Being that i had been running track for 4 years now it hard to break bad habits such running form because the way you are doing it is so implemented into your head. My coach here at VCU tells me that when I am running while leaning at my hip instead of leaning my whole body slightly forward. I chose this as my behavior because I have track practice everyday and in order for you to run faster and more efficiently you have to train and drill